A widely used type of electrical cable comprises a plurality of parallel coplanar conductors in spaced-apart relationship which are embedded in plastic insulating material. Electrical connections to the conductors in the cable are made by installing a multi contact electrical connector on the cable, the connector having a cable-receiving face and having terminals extending from the cable-receiving face. The terminals have slots that receive the conductors in the cable. The terminals are forced through the cable in a manner such that the conductors enter the slots and establish contact therewith. Thus, the mere installation of the connector on the cable also brings about electrical connections between all of the terminals in the connector and all of the conductors in the cable.
Problems can arise when the connector is installed on the cable as a result of dimensional variations in the cable itself. The terminals in the connector are relatively precisely positioned and if the cable is perfect or nearly so (as regards the center-to-center spacing of the conductors and the distance between the outside conductors in the cable) one conductor will enter the wire-receiving slot of each of the terminals in the connector when the connector is installed on the cable. However, the cable can not be manufactured to the same precise dimensional standards as can the connector and the spacing between adjacent conductors in the cable may vary within relatively wide tolerance limits. U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,695 explains this problem in detail and presents a solution for certain types of flat cable, particularly cable of the type in which each conductor is surrounded by a substantially cylindrical insulating sheath and each insulating sheath is connected to the next adjacent insulating sheath by a thin flexible web of plastic material. At the time the solution presented in the above identified U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,695 was developed, the minimum spacing between adjacent conductors in a flat conductor cable was 0.05 inches (1.27 mm) and it is feasible to provide the thin connecting web between adjacent conducting sheaths in the cable when the spacing is maintained at 1.27 mm.
Within more recent times, cable suppliers have begun to produce flat multiconductor cable in which adjacent conductors are spaced apart by only 0.025 inches (0.63 mm) and it is impractical to form the cable with a thin web as shown in the above U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,695. Because of the close spacing of the conductors, it is necessary that the insulating material extend as an almost continuous mass with the conductors embedded in the insulating material and the thickness of the insulating material varies only slightly across the width of the cable. Furthermore, the manufacturing difficulties of producing this relatively fine wire cable result in wide tolerances in the dimension between the outside conductors of the cable, the span tolerance of the cable. As a result, problems can be encountered when it is attempted to install a connector on the cable for the reason that some of the conductors in the cable may not line up with the proper terminals in the connector when the installation is made and shorting between adjacent conductors can be caused if a single terminal in the connector contacts two conductors in the cable.
The present invention is concerned with the reworking and sizing of flat conductor cable so that a connector can be installed on the reworked portion notwithstanding the fact that problems might be encountered in attempting to install the same connector on a portion of the cable which is not reworked and sized. The invention is further directed to the achievement of a method and apparatus for carrying out such reworking.